The Community Water Alliance (CWA) says the $245 million owed to City of Harare by residents is an inflated figure and has called for a thorough debt audit first before ratepayers are forced to settle their outstanding bills.
Harare is owed about $600 million by ratepayers, but the main defaulters are government departments and corporates.
CWA leader Hardlife Mudzingwa said council was short-changing residents particularly those in high-density suburbs by giving them estimated bills based mostly on services that were never rendered in the first place like refuse collection and water.
“Our research found out that most residents are billed for services that they do not receive and in any event the bills are estimated and not based on real services offered. To that end, we demand that the city conduct a debt audit to prove exactly what the residents owe,” Mudzingwa said.
“Some people have had no water in their taps for the past 10 years or so, but they are billed monthly for water. The council rarely collects refuse from households, but each month residents are billed. We should reconcile the alleged debt against real services rendered.”
An engineer with the city, Tapiwa Richard Kunyadini, said only 30% of the bills remitted to residents were based on estimates as the city did not have enough staff to do the meter readings.
“We don’t have enough staff to do monthly meter readings. We have resorted to issue estimated bills and conduct actual meter reading once every three months and make any necessary adjustments,” he said.
However, Mudzingwa said the bills issued were extortionate as their research showed that a household monthly bill could not be above $30.
“We have residents who are said to owe the city above $3 000 in arrears, but this cannot be possible from basic calculations. A family that does not pay anything for a year cannot be in arrears above $500. This strengthens our calls for a debt audit,” Mudzingwa said.
The city in 2013, like all local authorities, was forced by government to cancel all arrears against residents, but ratepayers believe the council inflates its bills to cover for that loss.
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